Typically, when a number of circuit boards are to be housed parallel to each other, each circuit board is housed in a circuit module (or pack) and the modules are housed parallel to each other in a cabinet. A rear surface of each module has one or more connectors to connect with protruding pins on a backplane. A front surface of each module has a faceplate, which acts as an interface between the circuit board and cables or fibres to be connected to the circuit board.
In order to be able to slide each module in and out of the cabinet, latches may be provided, which, if present, are typically pivotally connected to the faceplate, are used to help the user pull or push a module into or out of the cabinet.
For cable management purposes, it is also known to have a row of cable management pieces, the row oriented transverse to the axis of the faceplates and located on a surface of the cabinet, adjacent the faceplates of the modules. Each cable management piece is designed to hold or direct one or more cables or fibres extending from an adjacent faceplate. Typically, if the cabinet accommodates ten modules, for example, there would be a row of ten cable management pieces, one piece adjacent to each faceplate. In one known design, the row is manufactured out of a single piece of plastic, adhered to the cabinet. Accordingly, if a single module in a cabinet having one size cable were replaced with another module having a different size cable, it would not be convenient to replace the cable management piece corresponding to that module, because all of the cable management pieces for that cabinet would have to be replaced.
In view of the above, each faceplate may have associated with it two latches and one cable management piece. It would be desirable for reasons of simplicity, cost and maintenance, to reduce the number of such components (ie: to fewer than two latches and one cable management piece).